Art Book

The bodies of work of these men provide a rich source of data for understanding the development of tastes, not only in the span of a given carver’s work, but also in the evolution of styles from masters to apprentices. A carver may begin carving slate images of winged skulls and cherubs typical of pre-Revolutionary funerary memorials and, if his career was long enough, wind up carving neo-classical willows and urns on marble, or even more three-dimensional forms that point ahead to Victorian styles.




The 750+ images contained on the CD are all in high resolution (300dpi), and can be enlarged down to the level of individual words and letters. Where proper sun angle was not available, an off-the-camera angled flash was used to highlight the engravings in the best possible way. Over 600 close-up images of individual letters and characters comprise the lettering-style catalog in Appendix 1. Gravestones were selected that (a) demonstrate an individual carver’s evolving style and repertoire; (b) are key in distinguishing the work of one carver from that of others, especially his apprentices; and (c) are particularly interesting or beautiful.